Savage
Circus
SAVAGE CIRCUS, no doubt,
is a great band. Especially the fans of BLIND GUARDIAN will appreciate
them a lot. Some might say that copy that known band from Germany, but
I don't care what they say. For me all that counts is that SAVAGE CIRCUS
know how to compose great music... Here is an interview I did with PIET,
which is huge but not boring at all. After all Piet is a great guy and
I am glad that Heavy Metal scene still has such persons. So prepare for
a tour in the Dreamland Manor...
1. HELLO PIET! FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATIONS
ON “DREAMLAND MANOR”! AS A FAN OF THE GERMAN POWER METAL SCENE, I’D SAY
THAT THIS IS THE ALBUM THAT I WAS EXPECTING TO HEAR FROM BLIND GUARDIAN…
TO BE HONEST I WAS DISAPPOINTED BY “A NIGHT AT THE OPERA”…
Yeah! In a way I agree with you! I worked
for Blind Guardian for many years and I also liked their style a lot and
actually this is why I kept working with them for all this time… So, yeah
somehow I also missed this Blind Guardian sound. I expected that someday
Blind Guardian would release something like this, so since they didn’t
so something like that… Thomen and I did it ourselves! Hahahaha!
-WELL WE HAD WAITED FOR 3 YEARS FOR THE NEW BLIND
GUARDIAN ALBUM AND THE FINAL RESULT WAS TOO EXAGGERATED TO MY EARS…
Well, I agree with you, but on the other hand
their album has been equally successful to their previous works. Maybe
some new fans who are not so familiar with the older Blind Guardian sound,
go for this new sound. However, there are always fans like you and me,
who go for their older material! If you ask me, I agree with you since
I found their new material to be a little over the top!
2. FIRST OF ALL SOMETHING THAT I NOTICED IS THAT
BOTH OF THE BANDS THAT YOU PARTICIPATE, SAVAGE CIRCUS AND IRON SAVIOR STARTED
AS A PROJECT, BUT SOON BECAME FULL-TIME BANDS. HOW DO YOU COMMENT THAT?
In a way it is a funny coincidence! Hahahha!
I agree with you! And by the way both bands started with Thomen as well!
Hahahahha! Sure, but with Iron Savior things were a little different, since
I didn’t know what would happen… With Savage Circus it was a little different.
Even though we started it as a project, it was quite clear to us that we
didn’t want to come together and record only one album. With Savage Circus
it was “planned” from the beginning to world for a longer period. But of
course nothing was foreseen and then Thomen decided to leave Blind Guardian
and Savage Circus turned into a main band!
-SO, I WISH YOU TO CONTINUE WORKING AND RELEASING
ALBUM S WITH BOTH BANDS FOR A LONG TIME…
Well, yeah Iron Savior have a stable line
up now and it is in safe ground! Hahaha!
3. SOMETHING THAT I WANT TO CLEAR OUT IS THE STORY
OF HOW SAVAGE CIRCUS FORMED. I DID AN INTERVIEW WITH EFRAIM THE DRUMMER
OF PERSUADER AND HE TOLD ME THAT THE ORIGINAL IDEA OF CREATING THE BAND
WAS OF EMIL, BUT IN THE SAVAGE CIRCUS BIO I READ THAT THOMEN WAS ONE THAT
DECIDED TO FORM THE BAND. CAN YOU TELL US FEW THINGS ABOUT IT?
Actually the Thomen version is the most correct,
but the truth lies somewhere in between I’d say. It is pretty much like
it is said in the bio. I met Thomen after years after recording Persuader
and he played his initial ideas to me and as an answer to that, I played
to him the Persuader album, because they reminded me of Blind Guardian
so much… and actually I was keen to see the look on his face, especially
when he’d listen to the voice… hahahahaha so, he was quite determined from
the beginning. He said “OK these guys are cool and it’s something I want
to do. I have an idea for a project, to form a band that would sound similar
to what Blind Guardian used to play, so give me their telephone numbers!”.
Thomen got in touch with them, they liked his idea and a couple of weeks
later Thomen called me and asked me if I wanted to join them and I said
“OK! I’ll do it!” and that’s the story of Savage Circus!
4. IN YOUR BIO, I HAVE ALSO READ THAT THE COMPOSITIONS
OF THOMEN DIDN’T FIT INTO THE MUSICAL DIRECTION OF BLIND GUARDIAN AND I
WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF ANY OF THE SONGS THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED IN “DREAMLAND
MANOR” WAS WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR BLIND GUARDIAN…
Yeah! Actually yes! When Thomen at the time
was writing songs, he was writing them for Blind Guardian, but after listening
to his ideas, he said “Hmm… I don’t see many chances my songs to make it
to the new Blind Guardian album”. If you listen to the Savage Circus album,
you can understand that the sound was… not traditional in the vein of the
classic heavy metal albums, but comparing it to the new Blind Guardian
sound, it was more traditional and closer to the more metal and thrashing
era of Blind Guardian. He was afraid that his songs would be turned down
and that’s why he had this plan, cause he didn’t want his songs to remain
in his drawer and rot forever.
5. ALL THE MUSICIANS THAT PARTICIPATE IN SAVAGE
CIRCUS ARE QUITE KNOWN AND ESPECIALLY YOU WITH THOMEN, SO I WOULD LIKE
TO KNOW IN WHICH WAY DID YOU CONTRIBUTE IN THE CREATION OF THIS ALBUM?
Yes of course! Actually Thomen started out
with two songs, which laid the base on which we built the rest of the songs
so to speak. Those songs were “Evil Eyes” and “The Gathering”, so after
being determined that we wanted to work together, we started to write songs,
because we needed more. Thomen mainly had fractions of songs and so everybody
put in a lot of his ideas during the songwriting. The credits for each
song go, I’d say, to equal parts to all of the band members. The first
thing that we did was taking Thomen’s songs and forming and shaping them
in the band’s style and into the final version, which you can listen to.
-SO, THE ALBUM WAS A TEAM WORK…
Yeah! It was a fantastic team work even though
all band members are spread almost all over Europe, in Germany, Madrid
and Umea, places that aren’t around the corner I’d say! Hahahaha! We used
the Internet quite a lot, sending back and forth MP3s and rough ideas of
parts. It was a great way of working nevertheless and for my personal experience
it was very inspirational I might say!
6. “DREAMLAND MANOR” IS A VERY BEAUTIFUL TITLE,
CAN YOU TELL ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT, HOW AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE IT? DOES
IN A WAY THE TITLE DESCRIBES THE MUSIC OF THE BAND?
Well “Dreamland Manor”… Hmm… Yes I can! Hahahahaha!
We decided, we made a general decision, I wouldn’t go that far and call
“Dreamland Manor” a concept album, which isn’t the case, but there is a
red line of what the lyrics deal with and that red line is that none of
the lyrics talk about real things. We are not talking about the real world,
but about a fantasy, imaginary world, which more or less is inside your
head. But not the kind of fantasy that Tolkien and “Lord Of The Rings”
have. Not too much of that, cause that’s Blind Guardian. Musically there
are a lot of old Blind Guardian elements, but lyricwise we said we wanted
to do something different. I mean just to give you some brief examples,
there is a song that deals with somebody slightly insane that has hallucinations
and has some sort of psychosis and is in a strange state of mind, which
on one hand is frightening to him, but on the other hand it is also fascinating.
He sees all these new worlds and he is in a weird conflict within himself.
That’s what I mean when talking about imaginary worlds and there is also
another one, “The Gathering”, which is quite classical and goes back to
a book…
- A STEPHEN KING BOOK, RIGHT?
Yes! There is another one, “Tomorowland”,
which is inspired by Swedish fairytales. Great stories, by a great Swedish
author that carries a lot of a very special kind of fantasy! There is another
one, I’m picking various themes, which is based on the movie “The Village”,
I think it was on cinemas a couple of years ago. There is also a ghost
story, which is… wow! About a ghost! Hahahahhaa! If you see the cover you’ll
see various imaginary things. We wanted to bring all those things together,
so we had this idea of creating a picture that would contain all these
and this is Dreamland Manor of course! This is a non real place, you can’t
just go to Dreamland Manor for real, but you can go there if you close
your eyes and dive in your imagination. So, that’s why it is called Dreamland
Manor! Wow! Hahahahaha!
-IT IS SOME SORT OF A METAL DISNEYLAND. RIGHT?
7. SINCE WE’VE TALKED ABOUT MOST OF THE LYRICS,
COULD YOU TELL ME THE THEME OF “EVIL EYES” AND “BORN AGAIN BY THE NIGHT”.
A little bit! I must admit that “Evil Eyes”
and “Born Again By The Night” have some common things and that’s why I
left them out. They are dark, I mean “Evil Eyes” deals with the aftermath,
the destruction of the earth, evil spreading all over the earth and ruling
everything and “Born Again By The Night” is more or less in the same vein.
More or less I’d say that these lyrics are like Ronnie James Dio’s lyrics
to me, you know, a lot of cool sounding words that don’t make too much
sense! Hahaha!
8. YOU AND THOMEN ARE QUITE BIG NAMES IN THE METAL
SCENE AND I BELIEVE THAT MANY BIG LABELS WOULD BE INTERESTED TO RELEASE
SAVAGE CIRCUS, BUT YOU CHOOSE TO SIGN WITH A NEW LABEL, LIKE DOCKYARD 1,
WHICH REASONS LEAD YOU TO THAT DECISION?
Well, I must admit that one important reason
is that I am part of this label! Hahahaha! So, it was cool for me having
my own band signed by my own label, but on the other hand we could have
signed with maybe Nuclear Blast or SPV or other big names… I prefer working
with a smaller label, with fewer people, where you are much more important,
instead of signing with a bigger label. Look at Nuclear Blast… They are
really huge and they do a great job, but they’ve more or less turned into
a major. They are not an independent label anymore and with Nuclear Blast,
savage Circus would have been one of many big and great acts and I’m always
afraid of this thing… whether the band would get much attention. Now we
are the number one priority and this is much better and this was basically
the most important reason that made us decide to sign to my own label!
-AND IN FACT DOCKYARD1 DOES A GREAT WORK! WE COOPERATE
WITH CHRISTINE AND WE KNOW IT FORM FIRST HAND…
Yeah! I was very lucky to find out that Christine
and Dirk were available. They are really nice people to work with and I
wanted to do it for a long time, but alone I just couldn’t. The time was
right, so I did it and so far we are making good progress!
9. BY THE WAY PIET DID YOU SING IN ANY SONGS OR
DID EMIL DO THIS WORK ONLY?
Well, I did some backing vocals, but I didn’t
do any lead vocals. I’ve decided this because my voice is quite known and
easy to understand, so if I started singing it would automatically sound
like Iron Savior. And it’s very relaxing for me I must say! Hahahaha!
10. ON THE ONE HAND YOU ARE A MUSICIAN AND AS
AN ARTIST YOU WANT NO BOUNDARIES TO CREATE AND ON THE OTHER HAND YOU ARE
A PRODUCER THAT SOMETIMES YOU ARE FORCED TO PUT BOUNDARIES IN ORDER TO
ACHIEVE THE BEST POSSIBLE RESULT. SO HOW COMPATIBLE ARE THESE 2 ELEMENTS
THAT YOU HAVE AS A PERSON?
I do this for a long, long time now, being
a musician and producer in one person, I’ve learned to live with that.
Something that is new to me and I have to learn is that being an artist
on one hand and being a label on the other hand, is two totally different
things that lead to some conflicts. Hahahaha! I have to argue with myself
how much I want to pay me! Hahahahaha! How many licenses I’m willing to
give to myself and stuff like this! Hahahahaha!
-AND IN THIS CASE YOU CAN’T BLAME THE LABEL!
Yes and this is kind of new to me and this
producer versus artist thing… If I don’t play my instrument or sing, then
I can just be a producer. Now if I play in the band, then this makes me
a producer that has an overall plan and knows what to do and how it should
be done. It depends on the people… If you work with nice people who share
your ideas and move towards the same direction, then it’s a good and team
work.
11. I BELIEVE THAT THE COMPARISON WITH BLIND GUARDIAN
IS SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN’T AVOID. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? DO YOU PLAN
IN THE FUTURE TO CHANGE A BIT YOUR STYLE?
Well, I must admit that changing your style
is something that you can’t foresee that much. We wrote this album like
this because we wanted it to be like this, We thought it’s cool! Nobody
does this anymore, Blind Guardian don’t play in this style anymore and
nobody else dares to do it. There was a vacuum and this is why we focused
on doing songs like this. If some time passes and we start recording a
new album, then we might think it’s cool to add some other elements as
well. I don’t know! We don’t want to stagnate and we will do what every
band does, we will develop, but I can’t tell towards which way. For example
listen to Iron Savior’s first album and if you now listen to “Battering
Ram”, there are some changes. Other albums are more traditional, others
more progressive and it’s a matter of how you feel as an artist.
-WITH IRON SAVIOR YOU STARTED AS A POWER METAL
BAND AND YOU DEVELOPED TO A MORE CLASSIC HEAVY METAL ONE.
Yes! Exactly! That may change again… Maybe
on the next Iron Savior album I might feel in a different way and change
the way I write music and I might bring more progressive elements or something
else… I don’t know! I cannot foresee that, since it’s something I do spontaneously.
I hate to plan out an album. You limit yourself if you say, “Now, I must
write a song like this!”.
12. IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO DO
A BIG BUDGET VIDEO – CLIP, WHICH SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Even though we didn’t have a big budget, we
actually did a video clip for “Evil Eyes” and you can find it on the limited
edition
-BUT LET’S IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE A OT OF MONEY…
HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE VIDEO CLIP TO BE?
Actually, that we have already shot a video
clip for “Evil Eyes” it would be boring to do it again. So, in that case
I’d choose “Ghost Story” and I would come up with a really, truly haunted
video! Hahahaha! Playing in an old castle… Really Hollywood like and I
think you’d like this! With us maybe appearing as ghosts! Hahahaha! I’d
do a really spooky video for “Ghost Story”!
13. BY THE WAY SO FAR I FORGOT TO ASK YOU HOW
YOU DECIDED TO NAME THE BAND SAVAGE CIRCUS AND WHICH THE MEANING OF THAT
NAME IS…
You can imagine that this name was well discussed!
Finding a name is a really tough thing to do, you know! In the beginning
we knew what we didn’t want. We didn’t want a typical metal name, like
metal boys from hell or something like that. That was out of the question.
We wanted to find something that would sound a little different. After
going through nearly everything and being already at the point where we
had decided to name our project Death Devil, because we were so frustrated
that we couldn’t find a better name, after those weeks I came up with these
two words and everybody said “Hey that sounds OK and let’s take it!”. I
like it because it shows the concept and the variety of the band, there’s
something wild about this band. Of course we play speed metal, but there
is also this illusionary – imaginary situation that is described through
the word circus, the magical part of it… If you go to a circus and watch
its show, what you get is illusion, nothing is for real. So, I think that
these two words pretty much stand for what Savage Circus is all about!
Wild and hard on one hand, but it is also imaginary in other parts.
14. I ALSO KNOW THAT IRON SAVIOR HAVE LEFT NOISE/SANCTUARY
RECORDS AND YOU ALSO BELONG TO DOCKYARD1, WHICH WERE THE REASONS THAT LEAD
YOU TO THAT DECISION?
Well, after so many years that Noise has been
functioning, many people have stopped working there, some of them were
people I really liked and loved working with, so the new staff in Noise
was a problem to me and I didn’t feel comfortable anymore. I’m not implying
that the new staff doesn’t do a good work, but all of a sudden I realized
that there were new people surrounding me and I said “Hold on! I don’t
want this!”. And as I mentioned earlier Dockyard1 is my own label and I
run it with Christine and Dirk, who used to work in Noise/Sanctuary. I
liked them a lot and they are professionals, so both with Iron Savior and
Savage Circus I feel more comfortable being with Dockyard1 rather than
being in Noise.
15. DO YOU KNOW THAT HERE IN GREECE WE STILL CAN’T
FIND THE “BATTERING RAM” ALBUM?
Yeah! I know that there is a lot of trouble
with the distributors in Greece. I think one of the biggest distro labels
in Greece have been rebuilding their company for months now already and
he isn’t ordering anything. Savage Circus should be in V2 and I hope they
will put it out as soon as possible! Hahaha! I’d also like to say that
“Battering Ram” is a Noise album, it’s not a Dockyard1, so there aren’t
many things we can really do about it… But for the next album I’m quite
sure you will find it in Greece!
16. CAN YOU TELL US WHEN WE SHOULD EXPECT A NEW
IRON SAVIOR ALBUM?
The new Iron Savior album will be out early
summer next year.
-CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT? HAVE YOU
GOT A TITLE FOR IT?
I’ve just finished one song! How would I describe
it? I’d say it’s quite typical Iron Savior! Maybe closer to the sound of
“Condition Red”. It has the same tempo!
17. YOU LIKE SCIENCE FICTION A LOT. AM I RIGHT?
Yes of course! I’m a huge science fiction
fan!
-AND I ALSO LIKE A LOT THIS KIND OF STUFF, SO
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TO WRITE A SCIENCE FICTION BOOK?
Actually, I have those thought, but unfortunately
I never have the time. Maybe some day I can do it when I retire from being
an artist and playing the guitar. Maybe when I’m old, around 60 and it
will get ridiculous being on stage, then I think I can sit down and write
a book! Haha!
-BY THE WAY WILL YOU CONTINUE THE IRON SAVIOR
STORY ON YOUR NEW ALBUM?
I don’t know, but from how I see it, I don’t
want to do another concept album… “Battering Ram” which isn’t a concept
album, helped me delivered and free from concepts and I also have the chance
to write about other stuff that isn’t science fiction and I like this very
much on “Battering Ram” and I think I’ll do this o the new album also,
but on the other hand I know that there are a lot of people that are into
this science fiction stuff, myself included of course… So, I suppose you
might find 2-3 songs that will continue the Iron Savior story… I think
it’s a good mix and everybody will be satisfied!
18. YOU HAVE PLAYED A LIVE SHOW HERE IN GREECE.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER OF IT? DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS
BOTH AS IRON SAVIOR AND SAVAGE CIRCUS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO COME HERE IN GREECE?
Yes. It was the IRON SAVIOR live and it was
one of the most embarrassing things I ever did. We were really bad. We
were drunk that nigh I think… Yes we want to come, and it would be great
If I can come with both bands, SAVAGE CIRCUS and IRON SAVIOR… But nothing
is for sure yet…
19. THANK YOU PIET FOR YOUR TIME! GOOD LUCK WITH
BOTH OF YOUR BANDS AND YOUR JOB AS A PRODUCER. THE LAST LINES BELONG TO
YOU AND PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
Thank you very much Nikos. Hope to come in
Greece soon and see you all there. Till then check out the SAVAGE CIRCUS
album… Bye and Take Care…
Nick "William_Kidd" Parastatidis
|